GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana’s main political parties Tuesday nominated candidates for both head of state as well as for members of the National Assembly, all confident of victory in the September 1 regional and general elections.
Elections in Guyana take place within the framework of a multi-party representative democracy and a presidential system. The National Assembly is directly elected, with the nominee of the party or alliance that receives the most votes becoming President.
Leader of the main opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU), Aubrey Norton, who was the first to hand in his party’s list of candidates, said the party is ready for the elections and ready to take the seat of Government.
The APNU will be contesting in all 10 regions and has put forward candidates covering all the lists. Norton told reporters that the party’s list is diverse and youthful, with about 60 per cent of its members below the age of 40.
“It depends on how you define young, so if you are talking 40 and under, it will be more than 60 per cent of our list”, he said. Among the new candidates are business people, Dr. Terrence Campbell and Saiku Andrews, as well as attorneys Dexter Todd and Ronald Daniels.
“We have a well-balanced list. We have some grassroots people involved as well, because we believe it’s essential to connect with ordinary people, and you also have professional individuals. You have the politically experienced, you have youth, and it is our sincere hope that this mixture of people will allow us to run the country and run it effectively,” Norton said.
Norton said that while today’s nomination process went smoothly, there are still some concerns about the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and how it will be conducting the polls on September 1.
The incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) said that it had presented a winning list of candidates for the elections, with President Irfaan Ali telling reporters, “This is the winning list.
“The winning list is not just about the list; it is about performance. The PPP Civic has always put forward lists when we go to elections that demonstrate who we are and the values that we stand for.
“We bring people together, youth representation, women representation, farmers, professionals, doctors, we bring together all of Guyana. That is why we are so efficient and that is why we are results driven, results oriented, and that is why the PPP Civic has always achieved everything that we set ourselves to achieve”, President Ali said.
Among some of the new names on the PPP’s list of candidates are former Guyana Teachers Union president, Dr. Mark Lyte, well-known cardiologist and head of the Caribbean Heart Institute, Dr. Mahendra Carpen, founder of the Liberty and Justice Party, Lenox Shuman, former Leader of The New Movement, Dr. Asha Kissoon and University of Guyana lecturer, Dr. Kofi Dalrymple.
Former opposition members, including James Bond, Geeta Chandan-Edmond, and Thandi McAllister, are reportedly on the PPP’s list.
“Today, this mass movement that you are seeing behind the PPP came from the commitment we have made – staying true to our word and working hard to ensure that all of Guyana, in a massive way, is reflected in the People’s Progressive Party,” Ali said, adding that the PPP/C will be campaigning on its record in Government over the past five years.
The Presidential Candidate for the Alliance For Change (AFC), Nigel Hughes, said the party will be contesting all 10 administrative regions.
“(We are running) in almost every region, the AFC is back, this is the AFC of 2011. We are running alone and we will stand and fall by the results,” he said.
The AFC and APNU’s talks to form a coalition amid the 2025 elections collapsed earlier this year.
Nigel Hughes, the Alliance for Change (AFC) presidential candidate, is confident ahead of the September polls.
Hughes said the AFC’s list of candidates comprises members who are young and, should the party be elected, “50 per cent of my Cabinet will be women, half of the women will be young, and half of the men will be young”.
Hughes said that he hopes that GECOM will be fair in administering the elections.
Meanwhile, Chief Elections Officer Vishnu Persaud told reporters that if there are no significant delays or a request for a recount, the results for the elections should be available on the same night or the day after the polls.
“So far as a declaration is concerned, at the level of GECOM at the district level, we are earmarked to have declarations done by the night of, or the day after elections,” Persaud told reporters at the end of Nomination Day activities.
A total of seven political parties submitted their lists of candidates to contest the upcoming elections. Apart from the PPP/C, the APNU, and the AFC, another notable party is We Invest in the Nation (WIN), a newcomer headed by businessman Azruddin Mohamed.
Persaud told reporters that the staff of GECOM have been trained and prepared for the elections and that several international overseas missions are in Guyana to observe the process.
Persaud said security measures have been introduced to ensure that the tabulation of votes is done in a “transparent manner,” and that, in keeping with the law, as soon as Statement of Polls (SOPs) are processed, it will be posted on the GECOM website.
“So the requests can be known even before we declare it because you can be sitting in your sitting room and doing your tabulation,” Persaud said.
Five months after voters had cast their ballots in the March 2, 2020, election, Ali, the then-opposition candidate, was sworn in as Guyana’s President.
The elections had been mired in controversy following allegations of vote tampering, a recount, and a lengthy legal battle, with the outgoing President, David Granger, indicating that he would take his claims of fraud to the courts.
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